JERUSALEM – An elderly Jewish cabby who was kidnapped by Palestinian militants Friday was freed by Israeli commandos during a daring pre-dawn raid in the West Bank yesterday.

Israeli special forces stormed the home outside Ramallah where Eliyahu Goral was being held and freed him without incident, Israeli Radio said.

Goral, 61, had been abducted by a random group of Palestinian criminals who had hoped to “sell” him to West Bank terrorists, Israeli officials said.

Israeli authorities were first alerted to Goral’s abduction after his cab was found abandoned, with the motor running, in an Arab section of Jerusalem.

Israeli forces learned his whereabouts after busting two members of the kidnap gang last night.

The amazing rescue came as a renegade Palestinian terror group, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, claimed responsibility for yesterday’s stabbing death of a young Israeli man as he sat with his girlfriend on a beach in south Tel Aviv.

Amir Simhon, 24, died after he tried to defend his girlfriend from a crazed Palestinian militant who only minutes earlier had attempted to attack people in a nearby seaside restaurant.

Simhon’s death prompted Israeli officials to demand that the Palestinian Authority swiftly move to rein in major militant groups – or else.

Israel warned that its cease-fire with three major Palestinian militant organizations – considered key to further progress on the U.S.-engineered “road map” to peace – was on the line.